Elon Musk Tweets, Then Deletes, Criticism of Trump's Muslim Ban

He deleted all the tweets pretty much immediately.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has finally taken a hard stance against President Donald Trump’s ban on Muslim immigration. On Wednesday, 19 days after the ban first went into effect, Musk tweeted that the controversial executive order was “not right.” Then, moments after posting the bold series of tweets, Musk deleted all of them.

“Regarding govt policy, there are often things that happen that many people don’t agree with,” Musk wrote in the first of his now-deleted tweets. “This is normal for a functioning democracy.”

“They rarely warrant a public statement. However, the ban on Muslim immigrants from certain countries rises to this level,” Musk continued in another tweet that no longer exists. “It is not right.”

When a Twitter user asked Musk why he had deleted the tweets, he explained that they “were earlier drafts that [he] accidentally published.”

“I said the same thing a week [ago] already,” he wrote.

For one fleeting moment, Musk took a strong stance.

Well, not exactly: When the Muslim ban was first announced back in late January, Musk’s response was tepid. Musk, who sits on Trump’s business advisory council, tweeted that the ban was “not the best way to address the country’s challenges.” So that’s not exactly a fiery condemnation. In early February, Musk again posted to Twitter to say that he disagreed with the ban but would not step down from the advisory council like Uber CEO Travis Kalanick did. This, presumably, was what Musk was referring to when he said that he’d already come out against the ban a week ago. Wouldn’t want to repeat yourself, eh?